Ace-Garageguy

Rods and customs and prototypes and sportscars and road-racers have been significant parts of my interests.

Heat index was under 100 F today for the first time in a while (about 38 C), so working in the un-airconditioned shops was a little more pleasant than it's been lately. Low tonight will be 69 F. Positively chilly. Windows are open, exhaust fan is on, and it's already quite nice in here though it's still 77 F outside. I'll sleep like a stone.

Popular it is because of its small physical size and light weight for its displacement, its high-revving ability, and its high specific output as far back as 1955 when it was introduced; for all the hoopla the LS family gets, it really isn't that much of an improvement other than its cylinder heads, with combustion chambers and ports all being identical on each successive version...and it even retains the bore spacing and bellhousing compatibility with its ancient "smallblock" predecessor.

Today's irk, a regularly recurring one...people who continually whine that they "can't" do whatever moderately challenging task is asked of them instead of just shutting TFU and getting on with it...the same people whose refrain is "it's just too much wah wah wah boo hoo hoo". Whatever happened to strong, self-sufficient, resilient adults that could tough something out without crying about it constantly? I personally know a few, a VERY FEW. The rest are...

Chevrolet "smallblocks" are among the best engine designs of all time.

Kid me not, OK?

Something, something, something about something, you know, the thing.

Storm clouds, obvious to anyone who's paying attention, gather on the horizon and presage the winds of war.

Thanks for the reminder. I NEED to get that...

Tune a guitar you can, but can you tuna fish?

"Engine turning" is a decorative finish for metal parts, usually done with a mill or a lathe. A large graphic stripe entirely engine-turned would be pretty cool. It was popular on vintage machines, and is still sometimes featured on hot-rods.

Sullivan was the family name of five brothers who died together on one ship in WW II, and that's where the destroyer USS The Sullivans (DD-537) got her name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_The_Sullivans_(DD-537)

Just for the record, Boeing's "Starliner" spacecraft has been plagued with technical issues that have prevented it from returning to Earth. The round-trip was supposed to take a week, it's now been over a month, there's no known date when it might be able to make it back, and it looks like one of Mr. Musk's space vehicles might have to save the day...though both Boeing and NASA are understandably trying to play down the idea that astronauts are "stranded".

"Joints" in the above definition of "articulate" used as an adjective describing a jointed thing (and as an adjective in that context, "articulated " would be preferable), doesn't have anything to do with "articulate" used as an adjective as it applies to speech; "articulate" can also be used as a verb meaning "to provide movable joints".

HOKAY...I do have a Merit Vanwall VW-2 F1 builtup from the same series that came in fairly recently. The real car's wheelbase is 89.3" That would be 3.72" in 1/24. I measured the model at 3.688". I'm happy to call a .032" discrepancy, less than 1mm, "close enough". EDIT: Interesting trivia aside is that Frank Costin, responsible for the Lotus XI's aerodynamics, was also the body designer of the English Vanwall F1 cars. Also interesting is that Vandervell switched from Cooper as chassis builder to Colin Chapman (Lotus) later on.

I have one I'd normally be happy to measure to verify the scale, but it's about 2000 miles away, being in the first group I moved to the place out West. I DO recall looking it over carefully when it came in, and it looks good for 1/24. As I said, the XI is a tiny car. Its overall length is only 134", or a little over 5 1/2" in 1/24. Wheelbase is 85", or about 3.5" in 1/24. Width is a hair under 60", or just under 2.5" in 1/24. Tiny, and easy to see why somebody who doesn't know the cars or who's math-challenged might think it was a smaller scale. Of course, one of the reasons the early Loti were so fast with small engines was because of their diminutive size and low weight.

"FIRE!!!" can have different meanings.

AND... I see Model Roundup lists it as "1/43". WRONG. The Lotus XI is just a tiny car. EDIT: Scalemates gets it right: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/merit-lotus-xi--937112 EDIT 2: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235115433-merit-kits-124-lotus-11/ EDIT 3: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235080187-lotus-xi-merit-124/ EDIT 4:

Yes...but some of those Merit kits aren't extremely accurately scaled. EDIT: but they DO look right displayed with other 1/24 scale models.

Towers built of structural steel members usually employ insulation to protect the steel from heat-related deformation and possible collapse in case of fire.

Emergency responses can very often be made unnecessary by conscious thought and responsible behavior.

Thing like a bone with holes in it swimming in your soup might be a rat pelvis, depending on where you're dining tonight.

I'm with Pete. Don't really want to know what it is but a twinge of morbid curiosity is calling me to "cheat" to find it.